I have installed phpBB2 on UKlug in the vain attempt at starting an Online Community. I am pretty sure it will be as successful as UKlug 😉 but I wanted to install phpBB2 to see what it was like and I did need a message board for UKlug no matter how unused.
I suppose if I could get more RSS feeds and provide a cleaner interface to the search facility I would get a lot more hits but how do you go about advertising that the tool exists? I have tried mentioning it in a few pertinent places but so far traffic is slow
From Russia with Love
I had the pleasure of visiting the black sea when I was in the navy and one incident from that visit really stuck in my mind. We where visiting Odessa which, bar this incident was a beautiful place to be. To cut a long story short we were going out into town and to get there we had to climb the Potemkin Steps which where made famous by a Sergei Mikhailovich Eisensteinenstein’s movie
The Battleship Potemkin.
Or another review for the movie buff’s
It was at the foot of these steps where we where greeted by a young lady handing out flyers. Innocently I took one and the following was the message. I still have the original. The steps have actually been designed so that the top is narrower than the bottom to make them look even more impressive.
Everything including spelling and Grammar are as per the original.
Start
To the Sailors of the NATO Navy
Gentlemen! Continuing active visits of foreign war ships to the berths of Odessa and other Soviet ports show the dangerous tendency to direct occupation of Black Sea Northern coat and of country as whole, which is masked under the name of “partnership for peace”.
We know about existing of American plan “Drop shot” foreseeing the landing of a half-million army army to the Odessa region with the following attack against Kiev and Moscow. It isn’t a secret that exist Western plans to reduction the population of Ukraine from 52 to 15 million with the help of destroying medicine, organisation of famine and spreading of AIDS. Tensity have artificially created around Ukraine and other Slav states.
It’s resembling that Yugoslavian events of the last years have considered by USA and NATO as a range for the further split of geopolitical area of USSR. One can see a directed playing of “Chechan card” and “Crimean card”. The degree of USA intervention into our social and political life mount to defiant scopes.
We, Soviet people, shall defend our Motherland by using all possible methods and shan’t allow to neither foreigners nor traitors to play the master here.
Please bring to the notice of your President, Government, leadership of Pentagon and NATO block that further increas-ing of the West presence on the Soviet territory will oblige us to consider any military man of NATO stepped on our land as a representativve of occupation army, with all consequences arising thereof.
Go Home!
Patriotic Forces
End
Needless to say this greeting was not what I was expecting and it did put a bit of a damper on the whole trip to Odessa. We where very pleased to find out that the residents of Odessa were a very nice bunch of people and we had several really good nights there.
Additional features for XML Resume
The XML Resume builder tool is coming on quite well. I have added the facility for users to edit the way the resume will look. This is a time consuming task and I am only about one third of the way through. It is effectively a very large form that has sensible defaults and the user can select which area they want to look different and make the necessary changes. I am hoping to finish the majority of the work this week so that I can start work on Parrot again.
TMA 02 Finished
Its a lovely feeling finishing coursework. I have just finished my second TMA (Tutor Marked Assesment ) of M203 and I can relax for a few days. This is the second part of the introductory material and I was expecting it to be much harder than it was considering I have done very little group theory. I am really looking forward to the Linear Algebra block which is coming next then its onto Analysis. I think it will be this course that either makes or breaks my ambition to have a degree in Mathematics.
FOSDEM
Unfortunately I was unable to make FOSDEM this year. I wanted to go but a new job and Jenny working shifts means that what chance I get to see here I take and she has Saturday and Sunday off. Last years FOSDEM was meant to be a bit of a laugth and I missed it as well.
Odd Phone Call
Got a phone call from a mate last night after 1am.
Harry “Hello!”
Bob, “Hi Harry, where was the 1920 olympics held?”
Harry “I think it was Antwerp”
CLICK.
5 Minutes later
Harry “Hello”
Bob “Hi Harry, Who where the 10 countries recently admitted to the EU”
Harry “You again!”
Harry “Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary and Malta. What do you want to kn…..”
CLICK
It was only then I realised that he was in the middle of a quiz in a pub in Ballykelly NI.
Styles
I need to have a look at the various styles for MT. I like georgia_blue but it is not that easy on my eyes. I will not be writing my own because I have not got the time so It will be a default css for me. I am going to ask J which she prefers and probably run with that.
Installed MT
I decided to take a night off maths and do something else for a change. I have been meaning to install some type of content management tool for a while to save myself some time and tonight was the night. I decided to install Movable Type so hopefully I will be able to keep a more up to date blog.
First impressions are good, its very easy to use and I have managed to make several entries already. I also managed to transfer my old HTML blog over which was a bore but luckily there was not too much of it.
I also have to thank the person/s who runs www.movablesytle.com for making their style sheets freely available and all they ask for in return is the credit.
M203
Maths has started again. I have started M203 and handed in my first peice of coursework today. It looks like an interesting course and I am looking forward to getting stuck into it. It seems to be soaking up an awful lot of my time at the moment.
YAPC 2004
I have just been asked if I am going to go to YAPC 2004 (Belfast) in September. Considering its my home country I am probably going to go. I can also head home and catch up with the family. God knows who else is going to go and I am not really sure what to expect when I get there but the crack should be good.